Notable People

Social Sciences

Herbert Simon, Professor of Political Science (1942-1949), Department Chair, won the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1978.

Applied Mathematics

David Birkhoff, attended Lewis Institute from 1896-1902 before receiving his degree at Harvard (AB 1905, AM 1906); great mathematician of the early 20th century, formulated the ergodic theorem.
Samuel Karlin (Mathematics ’44), Professor Emeritus, Department of Mathematics, Stanford University, numerous awards and honors including the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, U.S. National Academy of Sciences, others.
Karl Menger, Mathematics Professor (1946-1971), Department Chair, considered one of the finest mathematicians of the 20th century.
S.S. Shu, Mathematics Professor (1948-55 and 1963-68), went on to be a professor of mathematics and aeronautics and engineering science at Purdue University, president of National Tsing Huan University, co-creator of Hsinchu Science Park, and chairman of the board of the Industrial and Technological Research Institute in Taiwan.

Humanities

Ethel Percy Andrus, Lewis Institute student (1900-1901) and English professor (1903-1910), founder of AARP.
S.I. Hayakawa, English faculty member (1939-1948), U.S. Senator, psychologist, semanticist, teacher and writer. His seminal book is Language in Thought and Action (1938).
Samson Raphaelson, attended Lewis Institute, wrote screenplays for movies like The Shop Around the Corner, Suspicion, and Heaven Can Wait and plays including The Jazz Singer.
James Roche (BS Language, Literature and Philosophy ’60), 20th Secretary of the Air Force (2001-2005).
Dorothy Thompson, attended Lewis Institute for two years before earning a degree at Syracuse University in New York (AB 1914), journalist and radio personality.

BCPS

Francis CG Hoskin, Professor of Biochemistry beginning in 1969, discovered an enzyme that neutralizes nerve gas.
Martin Jischke (BS Physics ’63), President of Purdue University, appointed in 2006 to President Bush's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, IIT trustee.
Gloria Ray Karlmark (Chemistry and Mathematics, 1965) was one of the Little Rock Nine who integrated Central High School in Little Rock, Ark. After IIT, she worked for IITRI, IBM and Philips International, and co-founded and was editor of Computers in Industry. She received the Congressional Gold Medal in 1999.
Leon Lederman, current Pritzker Professor of Physics, 1988 Nobel Prize winner.
Susan Solomon (BS Chemistry ’77) shared in the 2007 Nobel Prize for Peace as co-chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which received the award along with former Vice President Al Gore. A senior scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, she was the first person to explain that manmade chlorofluorocarbons were destroying the ozone layer and was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1992 at age 36.
Jack Steinberger, attended IIT in Physics for two years, researcher of neutrinos and winner of Nobel Prize for Physics in 1988 with Leon Lederman and Melvin Schwartz.

Computer Science

Rajeev Chandrasekhar (MS Computer Science ’88) helped to design Intel's Pentium chip; founded one of India's prominent cellular franchises, BPL Mobile; is chair and chief executive officer of Jupiter Capital; and is a member of the upper house of India's Parliament.
Jack Dongarra (MS Computer Science ’73), University Distinguished Professor of Computer Science, University of Tennessee.
Victor Tsao (MS Computer Science ’80), started Linksys, which he sold to Cisco for $500 million in 2003.
Jeff Schneiderman (MS Computer Science ’88), Chief Technology Officer for Answer.com.